This invention relates generally to chair pads and, more particularly, to wood chair pads. Chair pads are used as a protective covering for a floor area on which a chair rests or some other furniture item. The chair pad is utilized to protect the underlying floor from damage due to wear and tear caused by the chair and/or the occupant of the chair moving about within the floor area on which the chair rests. A typical chair pad is made of plastic or other appropriate material that is semi flexible, but resilient enough such that when the chair pad is placed on the floor area a semi rigid surface is provided by the chair pad. The semi rigid surface makes it easier to move about in the floor area with a chair with wheels.
Most chair pads are a unitary one piece flattened body. Some chair pads as indicated are made of plastic. However others are made of a hardwood material to provide a better aesthetic appeal. Hardwood chair pads, however, are not flexible. These chair pads, particularly largely ones, are difficult to move about and very difficult to ship because of the special packaging required. Also, one alternative to hardwood is bamboo, which can also be utilized for a chair pad if processed like a hardwood.
Bamboo is a grass, which belongs to the sub-family Bambusoidae of the family Poaceae (Graminae). Bamboo occurs naturally on every industrialized and populated continent with the exception of Europe. There are over 1000 known species of bamboo plants. It is a durable and versatile material, which has been utilized by various cultures and civilizations for various applications. Bamboo has been an integral part of the cultural, social and economic traditions of many societies. There is a vast pool of knowledge and skills related to the processing and usage of bamboo, which has encouraged the use of bamboo for various applications.
Clumping bamboo can be widely grown in tropical climates. The trunk of the plant is called the “culm”. The culm is a wider at the trunk or bottom and narrows toward the top. In some varieties of bamboo the culm may grow 40 to 60 feet tall. Once established, bamboo plants can replenish themselves in two or three years. Each year a bamboo will put out several full length culms, which are generally hollow, in the form of a tube having “nodes”. There are other parts of the bamboo plant that can be utilized other than the culm, including commonly used parts of a bamboo such as branches and leaves, culm sheaths, buds and rhizomes. Some species are very fast growing at the rate of one metre per day, in the growing season.
As mention above, bamboo occurs naturally on most continents, mainly in the tropical areas of a given continent. Its natural habitat ranges in latitude from Korea and Japan to South Argentina. It has been reported that millions tons of bamboo are harvested each year, almost three-fifths of it in India and China. On known source of quality bamboo is found in the Anji Mountains of China.
Bamboo has many uses such as substituting commercially for wood, plastics, and composite materials in structural and product applications. There is a large diversity of species, many of which are available in India, which is the second largest source of bamboo in the world ranking only behind China. These grow naturally at heights ranging from sea level to over 3500. Most Indian bamboo is sympodial (clump forming); the singular exception is Phylostacchus bambuisodes, cultivated by the Apa Tani Tribe on the Ziro plateau in Arunachal Pradesh.
Bamboo has to undergo certain processing stages to convert them into boards/laminates. The green bamboo culms are converted into slivers/planks and then to boards. The boards are finally finished by surface coating. The common primary processing steps for making sliver/planks from green bamboo culms are 1. Cross Cutting; 2. Radial Splitting; 3. Internal Knot Removing & Two-sided Planing; 4. Four-sided Planing; and 5. forming slivers/planks. The common secondary processing steps for making board/laminate from sliver/planks are 1. Starch Removal & Anti-fungal Treatment; 2. Drying; 3. Resin Application; 4. Laying of Slivers/planks; 5. Hot Pressing & Curing; and 6. form laminates/Boards. The common surface coating and finishing stages are 1. Surface Sanding & Finishing; 2. Surface Coating with melamine/polyurethane; 3. Curing of Laminates; 4. Fine Sanding; 5. Evaluation of Surface Properties.
There are various types of bamboo flooring including tongue and groove and the type that need to be butted together. The lacquered flooring tiles are finished using wear resistant UV lacquer and the unlacquered flooring tiles need to be coated/waxed and polished after installation. The strength of bamboo boards can be better than common wood board for its special Hi-steam pressure process. The board has good water resistance for its shrinking and expanding rate. Its water-absorbing rate is better than wood and is further humidity resistant and smooth. It has been reported that the strength of 12 mm bamboo ply-board is equivalent to that of a 25 mm plywood board. There are also removable bamboo flooring covering having bamboo on one side and carpeting on the other side. Although this type of flooring have limited flexibility.
There are also various types of bamboo chair pads made of flat elongated planks or strips arranged side by side length wise and attached along abutting adjacent edges binding them together in a side by die arrangement. There is also usually a cloth or felt backing or some other fibrous materials bonded to the underside. The bamboo chair pad as with any other wood chair pad is rigid.
The bamboo material is very durable for chair pad application, however, the construction of many bamboo pads are rigid lacking the capability to flex or bend. A novel bamboo chair pad construction is needed.